Chapter 20: The Greatest Slavery

No one waited for me when I left Galen’s study, not even Lyne, and I began the long descent.

Climbing the stairs had been painful, but stepping down one after another grated on my knee and the sore muscles of my leg. I passed one level and then the next, hallways and rooms toward the center of the tower. The windows on my left gave a view to the clear sky pinpricked with hundreds of stars, the three moons off over the horizon.

I gritted my teeth against the aches. When I breathed deeper, my ribs started pricking me, as well.

I had to focus on each step in the dim evening light, regular oil lamps in golden housings along the wall giving warm glows, but much remained in shadow. I used the tiny bed in the small room far below the Citadel as a reward.

My mind was so preoccupied that I didn’t see the figure launching from a doorway to my right until something metal reflected the low lamplight from the wall behind me.

I slung my body to the side starting with my shoulder, which threw the rest of me off balance, and I stepped back to recover, tripping on that stair and tumbling backwards.

The tumble was lucky, because the knife coming toward me would have stuck straight in the middle of my chest but instead sliced across the bicep of my left arm. The cut stung cold while I continued to fall and landed the stairs, corners slamming into my side.

He stood over me, his height imposing there in the dim stairway.

“Felix!” I reached over and put a hand on the cut on my arm, blood beginning to seep into my palm.

Felix hunched his shoulders, the knife in his hand ready to strike, his teeth bared.

I lifted a bloody hand to stay him. “Wait. Just wait. You don’t have to do this.”

“Only one of us will survive. You or me. This is the only way.” He lunged with the blade at my midsection. I scrambled and slid over and away, suffering only a minor cut along the outside of my thigh.

While I scrambled further and he gathered to attack, I said, “No. That’s what they want you to think.”

Felix leapt at me, and I rolled over to the left. He landed and leaned forward, stretching out to cut me, ripping at my tunic but missing my skin.

“You think you’re so smart.” He got to his feet, facing me. “But you’re a gedder idiot.”

I made my way to my feet, retreating, aching muscles now joined by the slice on my arm. “Maybe, but think about it.” I moved a couple more steps away. “The elves have been doing this for centuries, dividing, getting us to see each other as enemies. We can be different.”

Felix scoffed and paused. “Don’t you see where we are? Who we’re up against? They make the rules.”

I thought of my father, my mother, Reyan and Kendra, their belief in a god that taught something different. “No, they don’t. Or they don’t have to.”

He growled and chased me the, punching with a fist that flew past my head. Now the oil lamp was behind him, and shadows covered his face. “Shut up!”

I dodged another swipe of the knife, backing away. Felix was bigger, stronger, and added with my injuries, I really would be a gedder idiot if I tried to fight him.

“There has to be another way,” I said. “A way we don’t have to die.”

His eyes narrowed, his voice low. “There’s not.”

He rushed me, incredibly fast, both hands attacking at once, and while I attempted to avoid him, I stumbled, my legs weak. His fist caught my jaw, snapping my head to the side. He aimed the blade at my chest. I twisted and brought a leg up in desperation, and the knife plunged deep into the meat of my thigh.

I cried out in pain and swung my elbow wide, trying to get him off, and I struck him in the temple. He staggered and stood straight, trying to stay upright, leaving the knife in my leg.

In my exhaustion and agony and within a tick of time, I glanced at my bloody hands and the knife sticking out. The frustration of centuries of elven oppression and Felix refusing to listen and the Bladeguard putting us in this position, boys who should be brothers fighting each other, all of it fueled an anger that overwhelmed me.

The rage ruled me.

With wide eyes and yelling at the top of my lungs, I yanked the knife from my leg and tossed it at him in one motion. The knife turned end over end and sank into Felix’s collarbone. He threw his head back and screamed.